Hotel Social Media Articles and the Diffusion of Innovation
It’s interesting to see how the buzz around social media and related developments has gradually grown over the past two years in the hotel industry. In 2008 social media was still considered a fad and made the odd appearance here and there in hospitality news media…now in 2010 you hardly find any hotel news publication, hotel blog or newsletter worth their salt without the token social media piece.
Looking at the wide variety of hotel social media articles, however, it appears very clear that the technology adoption curve (or diffusion of innovation) is alive and well. Every hospitality blogger and hotel news company is talking about social media…but the articles (and authors) clearly follow the curve. I thought it’d be fun to list some of the types of social media articles and blogs currently making the rounds atop the diffusion of innovation curve…here goes:
The Hotel Concierge of the future now has a face!
Meet Emily….or the digital recreation of Emily, at least.
At TEDxUSC, computer graphics trailblazer Paul Debevec explains the scene-stealing technology behind Digital Emily, a digitally constructed human face so realistic it stands up to multiple takes.
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
From “Meet the hotel guest of 2020“
I need help. I need to talk.
I love technology and the convenience automation offers. But sometimes I miss just talking to someone…another human who will listen to me, empathize and help me.Enter the age of a one-touch, omnipresent, always-on service line. All guests have to do is access their mobile device or projection panels in hotel rooms and facilities to converse in live video with their very own concierge, order-taker, host, guest service agent and guide…all rolled into one very real Hotelier at the other end of the line. The ultimate mix of tech, personal touch and convenience…
Interactions with ‘animated humans’ always leave something to be desired…however, perhaps with this new emerging tech, we simply won’t be able to tell the difference!
Good thing or bad…you decide.
Hotel DNA in the Digital Age – Can we evolve?
While most traditional marketers, media gurus and public relations experts grapple with just how to leverage the power of digital media and social networks…real emerging trends sometimes go unnoticed. Sometimes all it takes is to tap into the world…and particularly the people around us to realize just how life as we know it is changing.
Mobile Hotel Applications – One solution to will them all
About a month or two ago, following the release of our featured article “Hotel Mobile Marketing – A Hotel Guest Story From The Near Future” we had a barrage of emails from vendors and companies innovating in the hotel mobile marketing & applications field. Some of these technologies were quite run-of-the-mill but some clearly stood out in creative and innovative ways. Here is one such prototype technology / software, called hYspace.
What follows below is a great overview of what this hopes to achieve in terms of boosting guest convenience and accessibility:
A contribution for hotelemarketer.com by Charles Reed, CEO of world leading hospitality technology provider, DOCOMO interTouch
Running a hotel has never been simple. Experienced hoteliers know that I’m stating the obvious.
Every hour, a hotelier engages in a logistical symphony to ensure the comfort and convenience of guests. To the uninitiated the variables are unimaginable.
Each day, a hotelier mobilises their team to ensure the 500-room property is equipped with the right amenities from the welcome chocolates, toiletries, and show horns, right down to ensuring that the remote controls for the TV and DVD are correctly matched to each room for each guest.
Technology and Marketing – A Match Made In Heaven
“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson may have put a poetic twist on human fascination with new technology, however the statement certainly lacks in bringing across the crucial importance of marketing. History is littered with examples of great new inventions and astonishing advances that never made the light of day…a lot of times simply because not enough people knew about them or just didn’t understand them.
The new age of Interactive Hotel Marketing – Surface Computing, Siftables, Multi-touch
As technology evolves to offer creative new ways to interact with digital media, the possibilities for marketers become immense. We’ve all seen what multi-touch displays have done to improve the user experience… the Apple iPod is a wonderful example of this. Even large multi-touch panels like those seen in the movie ‘Minority Report’ are now cropping up in news rooms.
Beyond being plain fun, the great thing about these new interactive input devices is our move towards more intuitive, quicker ways to interact with media…and finally a move away from two decades being tied to the mouse and keyboard. The hotel industry is big on guest interaction and personalization…so multi-touch screens offer an excellent way to interact with hotel guests, from information, ordering and billing to creative deployments that allow guests to create memories and offer feedback.
Hospitality Bloggers and Experts – Thoughts on Hotel Internet Marketing in 2009
Very early on this month, a colleague (thanks Lola!) sent me a copy of Peter Kim’s collaborative compilation of thoughts by bloggers on Social Media. I loved the format and the power that collaboration could harness…bringing together the thoughts, ideas and best practices of those defining the field.
The following document was subsequently born – I reached out to about 18 prominent industry bloggers, writers and industry leaders in online hospitality marketing. 6 came back…here are their thoughts on the main trends the hotel industry is likely to see this year, plus tips on how hoteliers can survive and thrive in the recession. The contributors include:
- Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, Deputy Director at the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR), School of Services Management at Bournemouth University.
- Todd Lucier, creator of Tourism Keys Internet Marketing for Tourism blog, podcast and learning materials
- Patrick Landman, Hotel Revenue Management, Online Distribution and Internet Marketing Guru and the Founder of Xotels
- Jan Tissera, President, TravelCLICK International (Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa regions)
- Guillaume Thevenot, French Londoner based at Amadeus and founder+editor of Hotel-Blogs.com
- Jitendra Jain (JJ), Online Marketer at Starwood Hotels and founder of The Talent Jungle Network, YoungHotelier.com and HoteleMarketer.com
Please feel free to share this work as required: http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=11403251&access_key=key-23o5j75xc4uxljxk4vfw&page=1&version=1&viewMode=list
Hotel Referral Marketing – Hotel Guests are a key Distribution Channel of the future
Article published under the name “The million dollar hotel marketing idea that’s been staring you in the face!”
I’ve been racking my brain for the last few weeks over what to write about. The interesting thing is that it’s not lack of choice that’s been the trouble…it’s too much of it! From the excitement caused by US underdog Barack Obama’s win and the promise of a brighter political future… to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer causing a buzz with his first-ever “holographic” interviews in the newsroom, there’s been plenty going on to keep techies and armchair futurists abuzz. And while CNN’s holograms weren’t really holograms when you cut to the chase…one development is very real…the advancing global recession that we’re slowly coming to grips with.
Hospitality media has been filled with reports about dropping profits margins, especially in hard hit areas and suggestions to hoteliers on how to best tackle the market situation, i.e. tough it out, work smart and dust off your selling shoes. What surprises me, though, is that while the hotel industry continues its distribution war with online 3rd parties with super-deep advertising pockets, it still continues to ignore its most lucrative booking distribution channel…its guests!
5 Future Internet trends that will change Hotel Internet Marketing
5 Future Developments that will revolutionize Online Hotel Marketing: “For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today”, says a famous proverb…and what better fit to apply this than in the world of technology and marketing?
The breakneck speed of tech evolution is inspiring (and often scary) but the two keywords that will set winning developments apart from the ‘also ran’ are ‘love’ and ‘simplicity’. It doesn’t take a degree to understand that people adopt technologies that fuel their imagination & passions…and the rate of adoption is in close sync to the simplicity of its interface and operation. Great technology needs to adapt to the needs of the user and future breakthroughs will bear testament to this.
